Is It Good? Savage Wolverine #7 Review

Need to get your fix of some Joe Mad art? Joe Madureira is one of the most idolized artists in comics today and that might be partly due to his disappearing act from the scene for so long. Well, he’s back now, and he’s kicking ass with Wolverine to boot. Last month we reviewed the first issue in this story arc and found the art was keeping things afloat, but what about this week’s? Is it good?

Savage Wolverine #7 (Marvel Comics)

When it comes to Wolverine, 99% of the audience is looking for berserker action sequences and maybe some interaction with characters. Anybody looking for a story outside an action movie is probably looking in the wrong place. Having said that, this issue is more of the same, but there are two story elements that should keep some folks on their toes.

Last issue, Elektra asked Wolverine to help her help Kingpin. Kingpin’s authority over The Hand was in jeopardy as they were going to send an assassin to test his skills. Kingpin told Elektra that assassin was going to be a zombie Bullseye and she didn’t want him rising from the dead. It wasn’t going to be a fair fight for Kingpin and Electra wants to ensure Bullseye is dead forever. This issue opens with our heroes confronting the ninjas who are resurrecting Bullseye.

Interesting concept here with Wolverine needing to warm up.

I’m not sure if this is a brand spanking new idea, but writer Zeb Wells plays around with the idea that Wolverine is only amazing at fighting when he’s in his berserker mode. Aside from that he’s just okay if not downright bad. It’ll probably piss off Wolverine fans, but it does give the character a grounding in reality. By giving him this weakness it helps make him vulnerable and therefore more interesting.

Sickkkkkkkk!

Another element Wells brings into this issue is the twist ending, which I won’t spoil here, but know that it’s an interesting surprise to say the least. It also flips the entire plot on its head concerning Wolverine and Electra working for Kingpin.

With those two elements out of the way, all this issue breaks down to is fight sequences. And boy do they look great. There’s just enough to keep you interested, and for the 99% out there wanting to see some fighting, they get everything they asked for.

That helicopter is amazing.

Joe Mad continues to draw some mean monsters and exciting sequences. Every character looks finished, polished and ready to be ogled. If you take a second to really look you’ll see backgrounds aren’t rendered too much, but that’s okay because it’s the muscled fighters we’re really looking at anyway. It does however, take the art down a notch when you can’t get any sense of mood or atmosphere.

That is a lot of blood.

7.5

Some great fight sequences

Interesting berserker idea

Not much to chew on

No backgrounds to speak of…mostly

Those 99% will be happy with this issue, but it’ll be over quick. Joe Mad’s art is good enough to peruse more than once however, but I was a bit let down with the lack of backgrounds even if that’s his M.O. It’s nice to see a new idea brought in from Zeb Wells though and it’s a good ride.

Is It Good?

About The Author

David used to write for his movie site Cine Discretion whilst writing a movie review column in college as well as a short stint writing for the Cape Codder newspaper. When the paper business went under David vowed to find a job in video and now currently works at a software company. Paper was overrated. Staving off insanity, David directed, wrote and starred in a bunch of short films. Dave currently creates training videos using sparkly animations but one of his true loves is writing about movies, comics, books and other nerd debauchery.